38 and 0.65, respectively. Conclusions : Higher dietary intake of carotenoids, especially L/Z, was associated with lower risk for AMD. Risk of AMD is higher with increasing age and was prevalent among subjects with diabetes. Cessation of smoking and alcohol may reduce the risk of AMD SB273005 in this population.”
“Neuropsychiatric

fluctuations in Parkinson’s disease (PD) are frequent and disabling. One way to investigate them is to assess the ability to inhibit distractive emotional information by a modified emotional Stroop (ES) task. We compared non-depressed, non-demented PD patients with healthy controls. During an acute levodopa challenge, patients performed a modified ES task during functional MRI and a neuropsychological assessment including Visual Analog Mood (VAMS) and Apathy scales. Ten patients and 12 controls completed the study. The VAMS scores were significantly improved by the acute intake of levodopa (p = 0.02), as was the apathy score (p = 0.03). Negative ES task (i.e. fearful facial expressions with the words “happy” or “fear” written across

them), induced a lengthening of the mean reaction time during the incongruent trials compared with the congruent trials in controls (relative difference = 2.7%, p smaller than 0.001) and in ON patients (relative difference = 5.9%, p smaller than 0.001), but not in PXD101 OFF patients (relative difference = 1.7%, p = 0.28). Controls and ON patients displayed greater activation than OFF patients within the right pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pACC), an area specifically involved in emotional conflict resolution (p smaller than 0.001 and p smaller than 0.008 respectively, k bigger than 5 uncorrected). No difference in the activation of the pACC was found between controls and ON patients, suggesting a normalization of the activation following levodopa administration. These results suggest that emotional conflict

processes could be dopamine-dependent. Pregenual ACC hypoactivation could be directly due to the degeneration of dopaminergic mesocorticolimbic pathway. Our results propose that neuropsychiatric fluctuations in PD patients could be partially SN-38 DNA Damage inhibitor explained by pACC hypoactivation and that adjustments of dopaminergic medication might be helpful for their treatment.”
“Background. – Lymphedema induced by mTOR inhibitors is a side-effect rarely reported to date. Patients and methods. – Long-lasting bilateral lower-limb lymphedema with left predominance developed in a 71-year-old stable renal transplant recipient after 40 months of sirolimus treatment. Although no change in lymphedema was observed after 21 months despite dosage reduced, it improved markedly after changeover to tacrolimus. Discussion. – Regardless of the individual drug, mTOR inhibitors can cause lymphedema. This effect may be countered through substitution with tacrolimus. Conclusion. – Physicians should be aware of lymphedema as a side-effect of mTOR inhibitors.